Some of you might remember this incident, which was noted on ATS late last month:

Originally posted by Dizrael

(CNN) -- Three MASKED men allegedly bound a woman and
carved words into her skin, police in Lincoln, Nebraska, said Monday.

The incident has been classified as a hate crime because a derogatory term for lesbians was painted inside the home, said Officer Katie Flood, a
spokeswoman for the Lincoln Police Department.

Now we have allegations that the whole thing was made up, which the woman in question denies.

Who to believe, how to react? We still don't know what the truth is...but the incident quickly became highly charged with political meaning before the
dust had settled. Many in the homosexual community pressured the police to do something quickly when the news first broke. Now many of those same
voices are backtracking in the face of evidence she made the whole thing up herself.

It is unfortunate when people use incidents like this to further their own political agendas before the truth is known. If it turns out this woman was
lying, it will do damage to her own cause.

Personally I can't help but think a social climate that fetishizes and hysterically politicizes certain types of "victimhood" over others lends itself
to the false reporting of crimes by those seeking sympathy or attention. Scarce public resources (like those of the rural police in this case) are
pressured by guilt-politics to put extra emphasis on "hate crimes" but in my opinion hate is an emotion, not a crime.

If it turns out she "cried wolf" I hope she is punished for making a false report to the full extent of the law.

Here's an interesting (and disturbing) thought experiment. Go back to the link to the first ATS thread on this incident in the OP's post
(or click here). Now read through the ATS comments in that thread, with this new
knowledge (That she might have faked it) in mind.

It's scary how easy it is to press people's buttons and make them jump through hoops and bend over backwards to express outrage or compassion...even
before the whole truth is known. Even here on ATS, home of smart and skeptical minds, the knee-jerkism in the face of the merest ALLEGATION of
"hate" is something amazing to behold. Look how easy it was to elicit those responses just by dragging the "hate" bogieman out of the closet. A
bogieman that we now know might have been totally faked.

Feel manipulated yet, ATS? You should. If it turns out this woman faked it all, you've been taken for a real ride and made to dance to the tune of a
political agenda before you had all the facts. Ask yourself this: If it had been a straight male who had been raped and carved up without the "hate
words" to an equivalent extent, would the reactions had been as strong? Would there even have been a thread on it, or media attention at all? And is
this at all fair?

If its this easy to make even ATSers jump at the whims of a politically correct sacred cow of the victimhood cult, the general public doesn't even
stand a chance.

According to Peschong, police found a pile of clothes, white knit gloves and a red box cutter on the living room floor after the alleged attack.
Rogers said the gloves didn't belong to her, but investigators determined that a lot of the DNA found inside the glove was Rogers' and that none of
it came from a male.

Peschong said investigators discovered that Rogers deleted numerous text messages she had sent the evening of the alleged attack, and that she bought
cotton gloves, a box cutter and zip ties from an Ace Hardware Store in Lincoln on July 17. All of the items were later found in her house, he said.
When confronted about the evidence weeks later, he said, Rogers admitted to purchasing all of the items except the gloves.

She also sent a photo of a cross-shaped cut on her chest to a friend a few days before the reported attack, Peschong said.

Personally I can't help but think a social climate that fetishizes and hysterically politicizes certain types of "victimhood" over others lends itself
to the false reporting of crimes by those seeking sympathy or attention. Scarce public resources (like those of the rural police in this case) are
pressured by guilt-politics to put extra emphasis on "hate crimes" but in my opinion hate is an emotion, not a crime.

We all know this sort of thing goes on... and sadly these types of incidents will always be politicised. You get crazy people who, either want
attention, or are unhappy because they didn’t get their own way once.. And so they make things up!

It is terrible and the person responsible needs to be punished... however, if society uses this one incident as a reason to somehow lesson the belief,
severity or disgust in other hate crimes than i am afraid that society is far sicker than this woman ever will be.

Also, I don’t think that the term “Hate crime” is referring to the actual emotion of hate, so much as the criminal action that is driven by
hate.

My neighbour can hate me all he wants, he can tell people he hates me, but the moment he punches me because of his hatred is the moment he has
committed a hate crime.

As many of you know I posted in the original thread about this situation. I will admit I was one to "fall" for the lie as well. I did not "fall for
it" simply because it was reported as such a horrific attack, but more so because, hate crimes towards the Gays, Lesbians, Bi s, Transgenders, and
Transsexuals happen regularly here in Lincoln. Due to this, it helps you to understand why so many stood up for her with donations and the vigils. As
it turns out she is not my friend that I was referring to in the first reported thread although they do have the same initials.

I have been very busy as of late and had actually missed this story until a friend here on ATS sent me a U2U directing me to this thread. I then went
and brought up all the local reports and made some calls to gain a better perspective of what was going on. Basically, she was so sick and tired of
the hate crimes she decided to do something about it, as she posted on her FB page.

“I believe way deep inside me that we can make things better for everyone,” she wrote July 18. “I will be a catalyst. I will do what it
takes. I will. Watch me.”

“The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that do.”

Instead of posting a bunch of quotes from local sources here I will simply link them at the bottom of this post. but the basics are...

She posted on her FB page as above and purchased the "supplies" from a hardware store a few blocks from here(She was identified by a store clerk
as having purchased the items), and the bar codes were identified as being purchased at that location.

She sent a picture of the cross carved into her chest to a friend 4 days prior to the event.

As shown above by Benevolent Heretic, the majority of DNA in the gloves were hers.

The cuts on her body were not only superficial, but also too straight to have occurred during a struggle showing they were either self inflicted or
done with permission.

There was no blood on the bed sheet from her being cut, then rolled over, as she reported.
And she all but admitted it in pleading "No Contest" to the charges.

The LGBT released this statement in regards to the case...

"It is important not to focus on the actions of any single individual. As residents
of Lincoln we must continue to bring our community together to declare that violence and hate are not the values of our city."

"These
crimes devastate the very fabric of every community in Lincoln," their statement said. "They cause people to turn their heads over their shoulder in
fear. Any allegation of crime or violence motivated by hate deserves the most serious investigation by law enforcement.”

I wholeheartedly agree with their statement. With this and why she did it, shows the problem of hate crimes in this city and beyond are larger than
what is commonly known. Even the police are worried that her actions will result in less reports of these hate crimes, which is sad.

"The last
thing that we ever think when somebody ends up reporting a crime to us is that it is not the truth," said Police Chief, Jim Peschong

The community is really not saying much about this situation but their heads are hung low in disbelief that she would have done such a thing. A local
tattoo parlor made a symbol of "NO/H8", discounted it from $75 to $40 and then set aside $10 from each sale to go towards the hate crimes and raised
$500 which they still have due to holding it until the original case was complete. A recipient of one of these Tattoos said

"I was mad about
it because why would you lie about something so horrible, but I thought about it and became more okay with it because I didn't just get it just for
this girl. I got it for all hate crimes around,"

As for myself and how I feel, I think she should have been charged with more than the single misdemeanor which carries a max penalty of a year. I
would have included arson, at the very least, for misusing City resources(contrary to what the OP states, there is nothing "rural" about it. This city
has a population of over 250,000 people), and I hope this does not cause hate crime reports to not be reported. I understand her reasoning behind
doing it but I disagree with what she did. I do take offense to the above poster in the way they bashed those of us that believed and others on ATS
for the way we look at reports. We only have the information provided to make an opinion in any case and with this one specifically and living in the
city knowing what happens here it was very easy to believe the reports as given. The above poster must not believe any crime or report is factual to
have made such a negative statement about believing a reported event.

Sorry in advance for the next post but I ran out of characters to put sources in this one. Sources in next post.

edit on 22-8-2012 by Agarta because: spaced the list section and spelling

...I do take offense to the above poster in the way they bashed those of us that believed and others on ATS for the way we look at reports. We
only have the information provided to make an opinion in any case and with this one specifically and living in the city knowing what happens here it
was very easy to believe the reports as given. The above poster must not believe any crime or report is factual to have made such a negative statement
about believing a reported event. ...

I wasn't "bashing" you, I was saying you are easily manipulated by the use of the word "hate." A statement I stand by.

And its not that I don't think "any crime or report is factual." Rather, I reject the entire concept and category of "hate crime." I think its a
manipulative term used to further a political agenda while being fundamentally unfair. The government should not be in the business of saying one
crime is more serious than another because it happens to be against a sacred-cow discriminated group, or because of the supposed internal feelings
(which are impossible to gage anyway) or political ideas of the criminal.

Think of it this way. Woman A gets raped and cut up. Woman B also gets raped and cut up, to the exact same degree, but she happens to be a lesbian and
some bad words get used at the crime scene. Although the trauma to the two women is exactly the same, Woman A's story gets buried to a small paragraph
on page 7 of the local newspaper and nobody but her loved ones care. Meanwhile woman B's story gets front-page headlines, TV crews show up, and the
police station is innundated with thousands of demands from irate people all over the nation to "do something fast." It is categorized as a different
type of crime, with more serious penalties. It becomes a national debacle. Resources are diverted from other cases to solve this highly-charged
political case. A Hollywood miniseries gets made. Meanwhile all this drama and attention makes unstable people more likely to fake such crimes on
themselves for attention, sympathy, or political reasons. See how that works?

I roundly reject the assertion that Woman B's case is somehow more "serious" because there was a special type of "hate" involved. Are you telling me
the person who raped and cut up Woman A didn't have hate in his heart too? But according to society the crime is less, and the hate against her
matters less, because she isn't a lesbian.

Think of it this way. Woman A gets raped and cut up. Woman B also gets raped and cut up, to the exact same degree, but she happens to be a lesbian and
some bad words get used at the crime scene. Although the trauma to the two women is exactly the same, Woman A's story gets buried to a small
paragraph on page 7 of the local newspaper and nobody but her loved ones care. Meanwhile woman B's story gets front-page headlines, TV crews show up,
and the police station is innundated with thousands of demands from irate people all over the nation to "do something fast." It becomes a national
debacle. Resources are diverted from other cases to solve this highly-charged political case. A Hollywood miniseries gets made. Meanwhile all this
drama and attention makes unstable people more likely to fake such crimes on themselves for attention, sympathy, or political reasons. See how that
works?

I roundly reject the assertion that Woman B's case is somehow more "serious" because there was a special type of "hate" involved. Are you
telling me the person who raped and cut up Woman A didn't have hate in his heart too? But according to society the crime is less, and the hate
against her matters less, because she isn't a lesbian.

I see where you are going... but i believe that one is worse than the other... its targeted discriminatory crime. If a Black man attacks me and steals
my watch because he needs money, it’s a horrible crime and i would feel bad. But if that same black man attacked me, and stole my watch, while
making it clear to me the he is doing it simply because he hates white people, then i would start to feel singled out because of my race. He didn’t
really want my watch, he actually wanted to show me how much he despised me because of my colour.... and if i lived in a predominately black area, and
these crimes were becoming common, then i could start to feel isolated and depressed.

And if the police and authorities treated this crime as a regular mugging, ignoring the fact that I was targeted because of my race, I would start to
become disillusioned with society as a whole.

We cannot and should not hide the fact that some people hate certain groups and commit crimes against them simply because of that hate.

If we ignore it we are giving it a degree of acceptability and risk isolating the victims of these crimes.

...If a Black man attacks me and steals my watch because he needs money, it’s a horrible crime and i would feel bad. But if that same black man
attacked me, and stole my watch, while making it clear to me the he is doing it simply because he hates white people, then i would start to feel
singled out because of my race. He didn’t really want my watch, he actually wanted to show me how much he despised me because of my colour.... and
if i lived in a predominately black area, and these crimes were becoming common, then i could start to feel isolated and depressed

Well, see, this is where you or I disagree. I don't think it matters whether he stole the watch because he wanted the watch or because he wanted to
make you feel bad about your race. The watch is stolen either way, that's the crime, and that's what should be punishable.

Many people attach this almost metaphysical importance to issues of identity - race, gender, sexual orientation. There is an assumption that
somebody's motives based on these things make the crime worse than the motives of somebody stealing (or raping, or killing) out of other motives like
simple greed. I simply don't think that's true. The governement shouldn't be in the business of legislating some crimes worse than others for these
reasons. I'm calling emperor's new clothes on this whole way of thinking.

I see what you are saying and for the most part I agree. A rape, mugging, theft, murder, etc. are what they are. Just because someones justification
is different doesn't mean the act was any worse. With that I retract my statement of taking offense. You have shown your point and a point I can
accept. It is saddening that, like you said, a "normal" crime is hidden on page 7 whilst the "hate" crimes become the limelight of page one.
Either way the crime committed is horrendous and should be treated, in the media, as the same(referring to your examples).

However, in the charging of a suspect, I do feel that motive is important to the case, and in the event of a "hate" crime there should be a separate
charge on top of the original crime charged. Not as the original crime is considered worse, because it is not, but because the intent was directed at
a race, sex, sexual orientation, belief, etc.

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